THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER INDIA: Were you always experimental with your personal style?
SOBHITA DHULIPALA: I’m someone who very much believes that your style in real life is very different from your on-camera style because it’s fully put together by someone else. That’s not you. With time, I have leaned into the feeling that I want to define who I am on my terms. To the outside eye, it might look like I’m experimental, but it has been a journey of slowly trying to find what looks good on me, who I am and what I don’t care about.
THR INDIA: Who are some of the fashion icons you took inspiration from growing up?
DHULIPALA: I mostly gravitated to older, mature women because I feel a lot of them looked like they were comfortable in their own skin and they dressed as they pleased. When I think of Rekha ji, I don’t think her look is for everyone, but she seems to have figured out what she likes. I was very drawn to that self-definition and that sense of identity. Different actors have it in different phases. When you look at Zeenat Aman’s style, there is a free-spirited, bohemian, glamorous look that comes to mind.
THR INDIA: What is one accessory you cannot step out without?
DHULIPALA: I like aged metals. I like when it has an antique feel to it. I feel like when it comes to streetwear, many people wear baggy clothing with the hair and make-up looking super polished. But I would do the opposite. I would like my clothes to be well-tailored, and I’d love my make-up and hair to look like I just woke up. I don’t want to be embarrassed by frizz.
THR INDIA: Tell us about your jewellery collection.
DHULIPALA: I want jewellery because I like it. I don’t see it as an investment. I know a lot of people think about jewellery that way, but for me it’s very personal. I tend to avoid wearing lots of small pieces at once. I have bold features, so I gravitate towards a single statement piece. Too many small things at once just feel visually chaotic on me.
THR INDIA: Who are the actors whose style you admire?
DHULIPALA: Shah Rukh Khan has cool style. I saw a couple of his airport looks, and there was a baggy, free-spirited vibe paired with really cool accessories. I love that dishevelled sex appeal. Obviously, when someone’s put together, they look amazing too, but that dishevelled look felt very him. When it comes to women, it’s always going to be Rekha ji.
THR INDIA: You’re the first Indian brand ambassador of Charlotte Tilbury. What did it make you realise about the landscape of beauty and India being introduced to it at that stage?
DHULIPALA: I would be lying if I said it didn’t feel like a personal win. In the many, many auditions I have done, I was so often told I wasn’t ‘pretty’ in the conventional sense. As a young girl, you don’t understand that. You don’t even realise it until enough people tell you the same thing: that you’re not fair, and fair somehow equals pretty. Fair equals ‘pyaari (lovely)’. At that time, I wasn’t even consciously equating skin colour to it.
The woman who fit that stereotypical ‘bubbly, pyaari, cutesy Delhi’ mould, whatever that look is that people gravitate toward, wasn’t the one who became the face of beauty. It was the other person, who actually looks like core India. I felt really good about that. I would love for international brands to work with anyone else who’s been in that position. I would love for them to work with diverse Indian beauties. I don’t want a girl sitting somewhere feeling unseen, because I damn well felt like that as a kid. I didn’t know who to look at or relate to. I’d love for that gap to be bridged.
THR INDIA: What is your fashion mantra?
DHULIPALA: I don’t think you can be stylish if you don’t know who you are. And that’s a journey in itself.
THR INDIA: A lot of people find wearing prints very daunting, but you have fashioned them effortlessly.
DHULIPALA: I don’t gravitate toward floral prints. I lean more towards animal prints. But that’s what makes it tricky, because if the fabric isn’t good, it can end up looking a bit inelegant. I like that slight ‘mob wife’ vibe, a little gangster energy. If it’s you, you’ll feel good wearing it. If you’re not feeling good in it, it’s not you.